xvi RIVERSIDE LETTERS 127 



bank and had just begun cutting it up for 

 firewood when the water rose again and carried 

 it off, where to I know not. 



It is astonishing how plants will go on 

 struggling into blossom in the late autumn as 

 long as the weather is mild. I never worry my 

 borders at this season by digging or tidying 

 up, and as I make it a rule to have nothing in 

 them but what is absolutely hardy, there are 

 always at this time numbers of odds and ends 

 of flowers from which to pick a nosegay if 

 the frost keeps off. As there seems a likeli- 

 hood of a sharp frost to-night I thought I 

 would make a list of such blooms as I could 

 find before that event takes place. You will 

 understand, of course, that all the flowers in 

 this list are not perhaps very fine specimens, 

 though many of them are quite respectable 

 ones. 



Mignonette, snapdragons, mangolds, Cam- 

 panula pumila and persicifolia, Aubrietia, 

 Veronica reptans, Virginian spiderwort, Japa- 

 nese anemone, stocks, nasturtium, scabious, 



